Gone But Not Forgotten: The Marine World unicorn

I was looking at old Marine World Africa USA commercials on YouTube, because that’s what I do pretty much every Tuesday night, when I ran across the above commercial from 1982. Starting at about 12 seconds into the video, note this line and the accompanying image: “Closer to a tiger, a unicorn, a killer whale …”

Unicorn?!?

How did I miss this? Did the Redwood Shores amusement park also have a Minotaur and a Pegasus? I watched every dolphin show, played in every corner of Whale of a Time World and rode down every flume in the Tiger Mountain Rapids, and I never saw a unicorn. Much less one that looks a hell of a lot like a goat. Before today, I assumed they were fictitious creatures. Unless this unicorn cast a spell on me that made me forget its existence.

I’ll look in the Chronicle archives later today and see if I can find out more about this so-called unicorn. I did find an interview on sideshowworld.com — definitely bookmarking that site — with the California resident who was apparently responsible for making these unicorns for Marine World, the Ringling Bros. circus and for display at various Renaissance and fantasy faires. To be honest, I’m getting a little bit of a creepy Island of Dr. Moreau vibe the more I look into it. (The fact that there’s a patent for these man-made unicorns doesn’t make me feel better about the process.) At least the two-headed snake at the old Steinhart Aquarium was born that way …

Your unicorn memories in the comments.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder of this parenting blog, which admittedly sometimes has nothing to do with parenting. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub.